It has become popular for consumers to customize their refrigerators by using decorative covers which match or harmonize with the decor of their kitchens. For example, many consumers desire that the front of the refrigerator be the same material as their kitchen cabinets. Many cabinet doors are made from materials which are about one quarter inch thick while other, more expensive, cabinet doors may be constructed from material as much as about three quarters of an inch thick. This raises the need for flexible mounting arrangements, particularly with refrigerators which are designed to be "counter depth", that is to have the front of the refrigerator essentially even with the front of the adjacent kitchen counters and cabinets.
An additional design difficulty with such refrigerators relates to door handles. Typically a manufacturer will manufacture its refrigerators with one of only a few models of handles. In addition, many of these handles are mounted to the front of the doors. This greatly complicates the use of custom door fronts. Some manufacturers attack this problem by making the handle part of a plate or flange which is attached to the side wall or edge of the door. While this alleviates to some degree problems in customizing the door covers, such handles often are not good aesthetic matches for the up-scale decorative fronts some consumers want to put on their refrigerators.
It is an object of this invention to provide a refrigerator including an improved arrangement for selectively mounting a decorative cover on the doors, including mounting of selected handles.
It is another object to provide such an arrangement which simplifies the use of decorative covers of different thicknesses,
It is still another object to provide such an arrangement which is flexible in use while minimizing the number of required parts,